Health IT Analytics reports that HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell has announced a new timeline that hopes to see 90% of Medicare payments transformed into value-based reimbursements by the end of 2018. HHS has outlined three strategies to achieve this goal: incentives, care quality improvement tactics, and health IT and data analytics adoption.

According to Fierce Health IT, a recent survey by EHR comparison site Software Advice has found that 75% of patients who have not used telemedicine are at least "moderately interested" in using it. However, the survey also captured consumer concerns about telemedicine, with 21% of respondents calling telemedicine visits "less personal."

Although Medicare is giving bonuses to 1,700 hospitals, many of the payments will be wiped out by penalties that the government has issued for other infractions. In fact, fewer than 800 of the 1,700 hospitals that earned bonuses from this program will actually receive extra money because they are being penalized for too many hospital readmissions or patients who develop infections during their hospital stays.

A study from the American Journal of Managed Care finds that improved chronic disease management for heart failure patients with one or more comorbidities lowers the rate of readmissions. The study found that for every twelve patients put on a CV disease management program, at least one hospitalization can be prevented.

Fortune Magazine releases its predictions for the five top healthcare trends that we will see in 2015. These trends include increased interoperability among healthcare IT systems, widespread use of digital tools, the rise of patient portals, and more.

Healthcare Finance projects that in 2015, hospital financial managers will be concerned with implementation of ICD-10 and the roll-out of population-based payments. In addition, hospital financial managers need to ensure that good contract management systems are in place.

According to a study in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, patients who accept their heart failure diagnosis tend to have a higher quality of life than those who do not. In seeking out information about heart failure, its symptoms and treatments, these patients are more likely to rebound emotionally and to follow medical recommendations.

Information Week publishes its predictions for healthcare IT in 2015. Some predictions include increased consolidation among hospitals, the use of big data and analytics to create guidelines for treatment, and patients gaining more control over their treatment and healthcare information.

According to Fierce Health IT, millennials are the patient population most willing to share their health data anonymously. A new Truven Health Analytics/NPR poll shows that of Americans 35 and younger, 61% are willing to share data, as opposed to 48% of Baby Boomers.

Cardiology Today's editorial board picks some of the previous year's top stories based on important advances, challenges, and new data in CV medicine. The article also addresses challenges with EMRs and predicts that in the future, there will be an increased use and incorporation of EMR scribes into cardiology practices for data collection.

Healthcare Informatics reports that in the year 2014, venture capital funding for healthcare IT more than double, coming to a total of $4.7 billion. This number included 670 deals, as compared with the $2.2 billion spent on 571 deals in 2013.

FierceHealthIT reports that during the year 2014, investors poured a record $6.5 billion into digital health ventures. This was an increase of 125% from 2013. The top investment areas included diagnostics, consumer health, practice management, and workflows.

Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health have published a paper that discusses how EHRs can threat the confidentiality of adolescents. There is the possibility of disclosure to parents of health information that the minor would prefer to keep private. Also, because many teens are unable to pay for out-of-pocket costs, the explanation of benefits related to insurance may be sent to parents while patients are receiving confidential care.

According to Healthcare Dive, a survey done by MPI in partnership with SERMO has found that 55% of physicians won't attest to stage 2 of the meaningful use program. Only 43,898 eligible professionals and 1,903 eligible hospitals have attested to meaningful use for the 2014 reporting period, out of 500,000 active registrants.

Eric Topol, M.D, chief academic officer of Scripps Health in San Diego, discusses "democratization of medicine" in an interview with Health Data Management. Topol's book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Healthcare, argues that there is an increasing shift towards consumers "owning" medical data and health information.